Apparatus for polishing sheet material



June 12, 1928. 1,673,432

I J. H. WALCOTT APPARATUS FOR POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 13, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet l A9 Q?/ ve7 2 dose 0761]. ZfiaZcqyi June 12, 1928.

J. H. WALCOTT APPARATUS FOR POLISHING SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 13, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet Ml'llllll'lllllll /76ve7 JESe JiJZTZUQZGOifi Patented June 12, 1928.

UNITED STA ES 1,673,432 PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH H. WALCOIT, OF SALEM, MASfiACI-IUSETTS, ASSIGNOB TO HELBURN THOMPSON COMPANY, OF SALEM, MASSAQHUSETTS, A CDRIORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Y mamas m romsnme smear. MATERIAL.

hpplication filed December is 192 6. Serial in). 154,313;

This invention pertains to thetreatment of sheet material and more particularly to apparatus for brushing or polishing such material, and in the exemplification of means here chosen for illustration is applied to the polishing of leather. I i It is customary to finishcertain fine leathers, particularly those. having a, pebbled or grained surface, by brushing them with a bristle hrushwhich imparts a glossfnot only to the tops of the minute elevationsupon the surface of the leather but also tothe sides of the depressions or valleysfbetween the elevations. In my Patent No. 1,556,05l, dated vOctober 6, 1925, I have disclosed machine which, as illustrated and described in the patent, is designed primarily farms; hing the surface, of leather so as toproduce a dull gloss bypolishing thetops only of tl1e elevations of its surface. The present invention constitutes, an improven'ient over that disclosedinsaid patent and while, as here illustrated, it is provided with a brush for polishing the leather, it be employed 2 for the same purpose as thepatented machine merely by substituting a rubbing roll for the brush. p In usinga rubbing or polishing roll or brush driven at high speed, i find that the air delivered centrifugallvvby the brush or; roll interferes with the feeding of the leather into contact with the bruslnfsince the air current flowing from thebrush tends to raise the advancing edge of the leather from the feed belt and if it does not actually blow the leather back away from the brush, it tends. to fold, Wrinkle or twist it so that the leather.

no longer lies fiatand in propershape for the polishing operation.

In my patented machine Iqprovide a resilient support for the feed belt at a point.

immediately beloivthe polishing or rubbing rollf As disclosed in the patentthis support consists" of a cylindrical brush, en-- gaging the under surface of the belt; The

o 'etically this supportingIbrush should rotate by reason of it's contact with the moving belt, but as a practical matter I have found that very slight changes" in the relative positions of the parts such, for example, as may be caused by warping of the wooden core of the supporting brush or improper adjustment of its shaft may cause it to wear in a non-uniform manner and as this wear .vention by tion; i y

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the machine, showa ing a-v progresses the brush eventually becomes so WOl'Il at one side that it no longer finds driving contact'wit'h the belt. The brush thus remainspractically stationary and such contact as the belt may then have with the brush merely increases the unsymmetrical wear of the brush so that the brush soon fails to provide the proper support for the belt- In accordance wlt-h the present invention I overcome the above diiiiculties and-also ser cure a. fuitheri'mproved operationby pro-' viding for holding the leather. securely against the surface of the moving belt so that it is not readily swept from the belt by thefaction of the polishingbrush whose pe ripheral speed is greater thanthat of the portion of the brush; housing broken the line 4-4: of Fig. 3-, to larger scale, showing the; relation of the supportingand polishing brushesand the guardmeans. 4 v The machine co mprisesspaced end frames 1 and 2 held in proper'relative position by means of suitable.

3,4'ct0. t r At the front of the machine I provide a shaft 5 carrying a roll 6 and at the rear of themachine I provide a second shaft 7 substantially parallel to theshaft 5 and carrying a r0118. The shafts 5 and 7 are preferably mounted in-adjustable bearings 9 and 10 respectively by means of which the shafts may be brought into accurately parallel relation.

At the central lower part of themachinel is free to turn and the arms 12 thus tend to swing downwardly by gravity from the position indicated in Fig. 1. The arms 12 have adjustable bearings 13 supporting a transversesh'a-ft 14 carrying a roll 15. The

transverse rails or bars Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section on provide a transverse shaft 11 which carries an arm 12 at each end. The shaft 11 shaft 14 is adjusted so as to be parallel to I the ,several rolls6, 8 and 15, the latter. roll;. constituting .tensioni'ng means to keeputhe,

conveyor belt taut. That run of the belt which extends from the roll 6 to the roll 8 is preferably moves from the front or the machine toward the rear or, as yiewed in Fig. 1, fron right toleft;

At the. central upper part of the I ma-' cliineI provide brackets 17 and 18 on the iran es jl and 2, respectively, whichsupport adjustable bearings lfl and 20fora rotary.

A shaft 21. .Thisfshaft carries a drive ill ley QL at one end adapted toreccive, a driving belt of usual character.

At its. opposite end the shaft fll'carries a small sprocket wheeli23. A sprocket chain 24 passes over this Sprocket wheel and about an idler sprocketwheel 25 carried by a stud shaft 25? mounted in bearings 26 (Fig. 3)

' supported bybrackets 27-011 the frame member l,v Thebhain; 24 also passes beneath atensioning sprocket wheel 28 carried by 'a bracket 29 pivotally supported at 30' upon the frame membei l i 1 The chain 24fpassesaround a sprocket wheel 31"monnted' upon a stub sh'aft 32.

carried by a bracket, 33.secured to the forward part of theiframe member 1 and from the sprocket 31 the chain passes rearwardly over .af sprocketf34 mounted upon a shaft ;-35'extending transversely acrosstlie machine substantially in the vertical plane of the shaft, 21 and belowthelatter. The shaft 35 is'support'edfin snitable bearings 36Iand 37' (Fig. 2) carried by the frame members 1 and 21espectively, Q i Q r The shaft 21 carries a brush wheel of any suitable kind iif desired having bristlesarranged in spirally extending tufts, although this is not' necessary. As fliere shown the brush is of'fordinary type. i The shaft 35 carries a bristle brush 3!) which is directly below the belt 16 and normally con tacts with the under side of the' belt at'a point directly beneath the'brnsh'38.' I The latter brush is substantially tangent to the upper surface of the belt 16'.

e'tfBl' and meshesavith a pinion 411onthe shaft [ref-the roller 6. Theratio of diam- 1' A small pinion4O is secured'to thesprocketersbfthe several sprocket wheels and gears.

issuch that the peripheral speed of the brush 38 is 'siibstantially greater than (the speed :of the belt 16, while the peripheral speed of the brush 39is preferably considerably less than that of the brusl138, The brush 38turhs in a right hand direction, 'asviewed in Fi s. 1 and .4, and thus itsperi'phery at its po ntotconta'ct Lwithth'e belt 16 moves in the same direction as the latter.

substantially horizontal and g I H housingmaylikewise be secured to a rod at its ends to theframe I prefer to enclose the upper part of the 1 or bar 44 attached members. I r y H A barY46 extends" across the machine between the brackets whichhold the barv 43 in place, and thi's'bar 46 is preferably adjust-i ably mounted by meanslof boltand slot connections,.as indicated for example at 45. The bar. 46 supports the upper or forward edge of a strip of flexible materialindicated at 47. This maybe a strip of leather, rub ber, canvas,or the like and its free rear edge extends down into the dihedral angle formed by-the approaehing surfaces of the brush 38 and the belt 16. Preferably the guard strip 47 inclines downwardly and rearwardly so as to leave'a flaring space'48 below it for the entrance of the advancing edge of the leather 49'. f p y In operating the machine the operator places a piece ofleather uponthe upper run of the belt*16 and as the belt travels rearwardly it feeds this leather into the space 48 between theguard member 47.jand the" advancing edge" of theleather so that the latter moves with the belt until'it is brought into contact with the under j surface of the guard member 47, ,As the 'airthrown out by the brush engages thenpper surface of 1 thisflexible member 47 it presses the free edge of the latter downwardly toward the upper surface of. the belt 16 and thus as the edgeot'the leather moves into the an is between the member 47 and the beltft 1e leather is very firmly held down against the belt so that it is constrainedto move at the same speed as that of the belt and no faster. A T

As theforward portion of the leather continues to move, it passes from below the guard 47 and into contactwith the bristles of'thebrush 38,:ind is'subjected to tbe'polishing'and brushing'actiOn of the latter. Since the rear portlons of the leather still engage'the member 47 the brush 38 can not sweep theleather along faster than the belt 16 and thus the polishing action is continued over the entire surface of the leather.

' Duringthe movementof the leather beneath the brush 38, the belt 16 is supported by means of the brush 39 in the same way as describedin my previous patent above referred to, but as the brush'39 is positively iii driven can not readily wear unevenly even though it may be warped to some extent or its shaft thrown out of adiustmena'so that the sprocket wheels and gearsiupon' the shafts, I may if desired vary the ratio of the speeds of the brushes and belts in accordance with circumstances.

While I have described the part 47 as flexible, it may be found desirable under some circumstances to use a rigid and inflexible element at this point, such a rigid element protecting the advancing leather from the air currents delivered by the brush, although it would not press the leather against the belt 16 in the way that a flexible strip will do.

lVhile I have illustrated one specific em bodiment of the invention herein, I wish it to be understood that various changes in proportions of parts and materials employed may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and that although leather has been referred to specifically as the material to be treated, any other mate-rial may be operated upon by the machine in the same manner.

I claim:

1. A machine for polishing sheet material comprising a rotating brush, means substantially tangent to the periphery of the brush for guiding the sheet material on its Way to the brush, and means for shielding the advancing edge of the sheet material from the air delivered centrifugally from the brush.

2. A machine for use in finishing leather comprising a rotary brush roll, an endless conveyor belt having a. run substantially tangent to the periphery of the roll for feeding leather to the roll, means for driving the brush roll and belt, and a guard member extending into the angle between the approaching roll and belt, said guard member being oblique to the belt and shielding the leather resting upon the belt from the air delivered by the bush as the leather approaches the brush.

3. A machine for use in finishing leather comprising a brush roll, means for driving the roll at high speed, an endless conveyor belt having a substantially horizontal run substantially tangent to the periphery of the roll, means for driving the belt at a speed relatively less that that of the brush, a housing enclosing the upper part of the brush, a guard strip extending substantially from one end of the brush roll to the other, said strip having a free edge disposed Within the angle of approach of the belt and brush roll, and a bar for supporting the opposite edge ofrthe strip. i 1 i l. A machine for polishing sheotmeaterial comprising a rotating brush, an element having a surface substantially tangent to the brush for supporting the material, means for rotatingthe brush, the rotation of the brush tending to move the material bodily in the direction of rotation-of the brush, and flexie ble guard ,means extending substantially from one end of the brush roll to the other,

said guard means having a part disposed closely adjacent to the line of contact of the brush and the supporting means for frictionally retarding the material. i

i 5.. A machine for polishing sheet material comprising a rotary brush, a support having a surface substantially tangent to the brush,

means for rotating the brush, the rotation of.

thelbrushtending to move the material bodlly the direction of rotat on of the brush, and pneumatically actuated friction break means for retarding the material and for holding it against the supporting means.

6. A machine for polishing sheet material comprising a rotary brush, a conveyor belt for supporting the material, and means actuated by the air delivered centrifugally by the brush for pressing the material against the conveyor belt.

.7. A machine for use in finishing leather comprising-a rotating roll an endless conveyor havinga run substantially tangent to the periphery of the roll, means for driving the belt at a speed less than the surface speed ofthe'roll and in the same direction,

and a flexible presser element disposed in the angle between the approaching belt and roll, said presser element responding to the air delivered centrifugally by the rotating roll to press the leather against the belt.

8. A machine for use in finishing leather comprising a rotating roll, an endless conveyor having a run substantially tangent to the periphery of the roll said conveyor being devoid of penetrating points orprongs,

means for driving the conveyor at a speed less'than the surface speed of the roll and in the same direction, and stationary means independent of the conveyor constrainingthe leather to move at substantially the same speed as the conveyor. c

9. A machine for use finishing leather comprising a rotary'brush roll, an endless conveyor belt having a run substantially tan gent to the periphery of the roll, means for driving the brush roll and belt, and a strip of flexible material having one edge disposed within the dihedral angle fromed by the approachingbrush and belt, said edge normally resting upon the belt, and means sup-' porting the opposite edge of said strip. at a point spaced from the belt.

10. A machine for use in finishing leather llu - terial to the polishing appliance,'a rotary resilientsupport-for the sheetinaterial at a point opposite-towthe polishing appliance, and means for positively rotating the reresilient support and for driving/the'eon veyor; 5 i r '7 1 a y 12. A machine for polishing sheet material comprising a rotary polishing brush, an endless belt conveyor for feeding the material to be treated to the brush, arotary roll having a resilient surface disposed at the opposite side of the belt from'the brush and tending to press the belt against the brush, means for rotating thebrush, and positive means for rotating the resilient roll andthe belt conveyor. 7 a r 13. A machine for polishing sheet mate rial comprising a )0\\'(l-(.lI'l\'On rotary polishing brush, a horizontally moving-belt for feedingthe sheet material to the brush,

-means for driving the belt at a speed less than the surface speed of the brush, a supporting brush roll parallel to the polishing brush and disposed below the belt for supporting the shcet material innnediately below the polishing brush, and means for p051 tively rotating'athe supporting brush roll.

Signed by meat Salem, Massachusetts, this ninth day of December, 1926.

i 1 J OSEPHI'I. VVALCOTT. 

